1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and a data processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus, such as a printer or a multifunction peripheral, is provided with a function to shift to a power saving mode, which is low in power consumption, in order to reduce power consumed by the apparatus when the apparatus is not in use during a predetermined period of time. In the power saving mode, the image forming apparatus either stops a power supply to a heat fixing device, which is a main power consuming source, or lowers the temperature of the heat fixing device to a predetermined temperature.
In contrast to this, in recent years, a product realizing power consumption reduction of the heat fixing device itself, such as represented by an on-demand heat fixing device, has been developed, and thus, power consumption reduction of the image formatting apparatus has been advancing.
However, the power consumption of an image forming apparatus is not simply limited to the heat fixing device. Recent image forming apparatuses are mounted with system ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) and other numerous electronic parts in order to perform image processing and system control in the image forming apparatus, and as a result, the power consumed by these electronic parts has increased. Furthermore, because of the speeding up of rasterization of PDL (page description language) data, operating clock frequencies of an image processing ASIC and a CPU are becoming high, and the power consumption tends to further increase. Thus, although some advancements in electronics are beneficial for increasing processing speeds, in many circumstances, the tradeoff is increased power consumption.
Under such circumstances, in the power saving mode, an image forming apparatus is required to perform control to reduce the power supply to electronic parts. Hence, to realize the power consumption reduction, an information technology device adopting a method of supplying power to only a portion which detects the incoming of data in the power saving mode has been developed as represented by a Wake On LAN function of wired LAN (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-324071).
Such an information technology device performs the power supply to hardware configuring the device upon reception of a packet matching the condition of Wake On LAN from a host computer and the like, thereby waking up the hardware. In the information technology device equipped with the Wake On LAN function, an incoming detecting portion for detecting whether a wake on packet has been received from the host computer is required to be supplied with power in the power saving mode. The power consumption in this case is lower compared to the ordinary operation. Consequently, this is an effective method to realize the power consumption reduction for the whole of an information technology device. In the information technology device introducing such function, it is possible to allow a remote printer or network multifunction peripheral to shift from the power saving mode to a standby mode through the wired LAN.
Further, in recent years, a mobile information technology device, such as a notebook personal computer and the like, corresponding to a wireless LAN using a wireless technology in replacement of the wired LAN has been developed. By appearance of the information technology device sufficiently giving a full play to cordless user-friendliness, ubiquitous environment is being constructed in home and offices. Even in the case of a printer or a multifunction peripheral, which is an image forming apparatus, product development corresponding to the wireless LAN is being aggressively conducted. However, in the case of a network multifunction peripheral or the like which is fixedly installed at a predetermined location of the office as against a mobile information technology device which is freely movable, there still exists a need in terms of enabling communications either by wired or wireless network in order to give versatility to the network connection function.
However, an image forming apparatus which corresponds to both wired and wireless network interfaces is always in search of a link destination of wireless communication in order to establish a network connection with the wireless equipment existing in the distance within a predetermined range. Therefore, it is necessary to supply power to the wireless network interface even in the power saving mode. In this case, the consumption power of the image forming apparatus is presumed to increase due to the communication connection with the wireless equipment.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a data processing apparatus and a data processing method directed to realizing power consumption reduction and maintaining user-friendliness in a data processing system configured by a plurality of data processing apparatuses having both wired and wireless network connection functions.